The Park
Located in southeast Utah, Natural Bridges is the state’s First National Monument. Established in 1908, it gets its name from the park’s three extensive naturally occurring bridge-like features. The bridges, Sipapu, Owachomo, and Kachina, are named in honor of the Puebloans, an ancestral people who made the area their home between 7,000 Before Common Era (BCE) and 700 Common Era (CE). Natural Bridges is now maintained by the National Park Service (NPS). (2024)
Despite being one of the lesser-known and visited National Monuments in Utah, Natural Bridges draws in 90,000 visitors annually (2014). While the three bridges are the main attraction, the park offers a diverse range of activities. Visitors can immerse themselves in the park’s natural beauty, explore its historical sites and artifacts, hike its trails, and camp under the starry skies. It is a national treasure that offers something for everyone, making it a must-visit and a cause worth conserving. (2024)
Data
To truly understand a place, you must collect and analyze its data. Fortunately, the United States (U.S.) Geological Survey has collected historical data from the Natural Bridges National Monument since 1980 to 2018 and made it publicly available (2022a). The park has 113 data collection sites where they record data from soil composition and temperature to precipitation and evaporation. The complete list of collected and shared data can be found here.
This page only uses historical data collected from 1980 to 2018, while other pages on this site use projected data. The projected data is split into two terms: near-term from 2021 to 2059 and long-term from 2060 to 2099. The near-term and long-term data were predicted using two Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs) and twenty General Circulation Model (GCM) scenarios (2022b). The two RCPs are based on a medium mitigation and stabilization scenario, RCP4.5, and a high baseline, no-policy scenario, RCP8.5 (2022b). The twenty GCM scenarios are built based on models from SOILWAT2. You can find more information on the models here. (2023)
The Land
Natural Bridges National Monument’s data collection sites cover the area from a longitude of -110.0472 to -109.9659 and latitude of 37.57034 to 37.63476. The park’s elevation ranges from 1740.206m above sea level to 2004.064m above sea level. This section will also look at the ground coverage, soil composition, and slope of each data collection site. (2022a)
Ground Coverage
The U.S. Geological Survey collects the percentage of ground around each site that is covered by tree canopy, annual herbaceous plants, plant litter, scrubs, or bare ground. This visual shows the mean of each coverage from all the collection sites.
Soil
Sa - Sand
Cl - Clay
RF - Rock FragmentSlope
Temperature
Mean Annual
Max summer temp
Tmin_winter
Percepitation
Day top 50 dry
DrySoilDays_Winter_top50
DrySoilDays_Spring_top50References
Association, National Parks Conservation. 2014. “Plan a Desert Getaway to Natural Bridges.” November 13, 2014. https://www.npca.org/articles/406-plan-a-desert-getaway-to-natural-bridges.
Ecology, Dryland. 2023. “SOILWAT2.” October 24, 2023. https://github.com/DrylandEcology/SOILWAT2.
Service, National Park. 2024. “Natural Bridges.” April 25, 2024. https://www.nps.gov/nabr/index.htm.
Survey, U. S. Geological. 2022a. “Climate and Drought Adaptation: Historical and Projected Future Exposure Metrics for Southeastern Utah Group National Parks.” March 2, 2022. https://www.sciencebase.gov/catalog/item/61a6952fd34eb622f6978d9f.
———. 2022b. “Climate and Drought Adaptation: Historical and Projected Future Exposure Metrics for Southeastern Utah Group National Parks.” March 2, 2022. https://www.sciencebase.gov/catalog/file/get/61a6952fd34eb622f6978d9f?f=__disk__78%2F99%2F9b%2F78999b749568b2fbba86ce5dc9fc89aebe469388&transform=1&allowOpen=true.